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Do over Ham posted:Strikers beat Cosmos at Lockhart, also 2-1, so Cosmos have not clinched Spring title yet. Strikers did their part, but every other team in contention hosed up and failed to win today. So the Cosmos win the title unless Indy can beat Carolina by 4 next week, or the Rowdies or Strikers win by even more absurd margins.
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Jun 5, 2016 05:49
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Do over Ham posted:In NASL, Rowdies beat Ottawa 2-1 at Al Lang. I was skeptical at first about the Joe Cole signing but he is turning out rather well. He still has plenty of hustle and his accurate passing has really improved the Rowdies offense. This is the first match he has been subbed out of (at about 77th minute) which is pretty impressive as he is not used to playing in this kind of heat and humidity. Both goals to Georgi Hristov; he has been doing quite well lately as well. He's done really well. He provides some directness we've lacked recently, which is nice.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:06
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King of False Promises posted:He's done really well. He provides some directness we've lacked recently, which is nice. Yes but now I'm getting greedy and I want more, better talent to support Joe Cole and to lift the Rowdies playing level to new heights. Cosmos ain't gonna beat themselves y'know.  From the US Open Cup thread: quote:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3773734&pagenumber=2 From Ralph's Mob on Facebook: quote:A special thank you goes out to the Tampa Bay Rowdies front office staff, for working with us to resolve the issues of smoke, #FreeDave, and the band. We are happy to announce that Dave has been reinstated and we are working towards permanent solutions for the other issues. We appreciate all your efforts to make sure everyone has a fun and safe time at the matches. See you on Saturday! So, yay Dave! He was apparently banned (now un-banned) for past use of smoke bombs, which is ironic as the Rowdies do use images of the Mob with smoke bombs in their advertising, which is very MLS-like, I must say. Some of the older mobsters do have health issues with the smoke though. The other issue is Mobster dislike of the Loudies playing music nearby during the game. So, supporter drama.  Some Ralphs Mob tifo from the recent US Open Cup match; first one is from an old photo of Rodney Marsh giving someone the finger:  
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Jun 6, 2016 02:51
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Do over Ham posted:
I was right behind him when he lit the bomb a few games back and then on Wednesday when he was served his papers. Really strange. Glad it was reversed.
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Jun 6, 2016 03:12
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 quote:Charleston Battery Owner: We want to be an MLS city Don't really see the point of USSF enforcing D2 standards while allowing teams that easily qualify for D2 status (which Charleston does according to this article) to play in D3, even as these D3 teams continue to crow about their ambitions to move up to MLS. quote:Chicago could add second men's professional soccer team
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Jun 7, 2016 08:09
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It's all politics. Namely, MLS/USL vs. NASL. MLS and the USL are painting the NASL as a dead-end league, and it's tough to counter that while the USSF is getting requests for both lower divisions to move up on the ladder. This is what happens when you let the free market dictate soccer!
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Jun 7, 2016 17:44
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CaptainYesterday posted:It's all politics. Namely, MLS/USL vs. NASL. MLS and the USL are painting the NASL as a dead-end league, and it's tough to counter that while the USSF is getting requests for both lower divisions to move up on the ladder. This is what happens when you let the free market dictate soccer! it's quite the opposite of that, actually
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Jun 7, 2016 17:49
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Rayo Vallecano might be pulling the plug on Rayo OKC after not even 10 games https://twitter.com/MLSist/status/740274318849015809
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Jun 7, 2016 23:20
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awyeahz posted:Rayo Vallecano might be pulling the plug on Rayo OKC after not even 10 games If they do sell, it will probably only be because someone came in with a ridiculous offer since pretty much every single club in the top two levels of Spanish football is up to its eyeballs in debt. I highly doubt selling an NASL team for five million dollars or whatever would make much of a difference. Crazy Ted fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jun 8, 2016 |
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Jun 8, 2016 01:26
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CaptainYesterday posted:It's all politics. Namely, MLS/USL vs. NASL. MLS and the USL are painting the NASL as a dead-end league, and it's tough to counter that while the USSF is getting requests for both lower divisions to move up on the ladder. This is what happens when you let the free market dictate soccer! wicka posted:it's quite the opposite of that, actually If the D2 requirements actually meant something USSF wouldn't allow teams that qualify for D2 to stay in D3 while making plans to move to D1. USSF are deliberately sabotaging their own D2 standards by allowing USL teams to do this. It should be: if you meet D2 requirements, and especially if you also want to go to MLS, you should have to go into NASL first. That would stabilize NASL and put a permanent stop to this endless and pointless war between USL and NASL. Seriously, I've lost count; are there any USL teams, that are not MLS reserve teams, that haven't announced MLS plans yet or have rumors of MLS plans at some point? Even teams that are in ridiculously small markets like Charleston are talking MLS (El Paso number 98 TV market; Charleston SC is number 99 TV market!). It's silly. These teams are never going to MLS. If they meet D2 ownership requirements they should be in NASL to help provide long term stability to D2. USL as a D3 league doesn't have to worry about stability anymore now that it has become an MLS farm league. quote:Banned For Life? The Dave Alexander Story
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Jun 8, 2016 03:32
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Do over Ham posted:True if it were pure free markets USSF wouldn't exist at all (or it would exist but have no say over league sanctioning) and there would be no D1 or D2 requirements, or, we'd have USSF and pro/rel. But we have neither. What we have instead is a weird mixture of semi-free markets and economic chaos mixed with arbitrary regulation and politics. i just hate that we have a league system in which the league is a personality itself that bickers with other leagues. i don't care about MLS or NASL or USL, these are just containers for teams that organize things and set up media contracts, why are they fighting with each other and forming alliances? all of these leagues need to focus more on growing the sport and not just on growing themselves. more often than not those two things are not as intertwined as they think they are. Do over Ham posted:It should be: if you meet D2 requirements, and especially if you also want to go to MLS, you should have to go into NASL first. That would stabilize NASL and put a permanent stop to this endless and pointless war between USL and NASL. totes, i wish they would just all merge and stop this slapfighting. then MLS could stop expanding for a hot minute, stop diluting the talent pool, stop putting teams in lovely cities no one cares about (MIAMI), focus on consolidating and growing the teams they have, then maybe invest some money into the second and third divisions. then maybe we'd have some stable clubs and academies from top to bottom and really start churning out players. Do over Ham posted:Seriously, I've lost count; are there any USL teams, that are not MLS reserve teams, that haven't announced MLS plans yet or have rumors of MLS plans at some point? Even teams that are in ridiculously small markets like Charleston are talking MLS (El Paso number 98 TV market; Charleston SC is number 99 TV market!). definitely all of them have MLS "plans." the hounds have a 3500 seat stadium, one of the stands is temporary, we average like 1600 fans a game, yet they have draft plans to expand on their current footprint to 18,500 and join MLS within ten years...
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Jun 8, 2016 14:10
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wicka posted:definitely all of them have MLS "plans." the hounds have a 3500 seat stadium, one of the stands is temporary, we average like 1600 fans a game, yet they have draft plans to expand on their current footprint to 18,500 and join MLS within ten years... I wonder which city in the world has the worst total population to stadium size ratio. Charleston only has ~120,000 people in it. In order to fill a 20,000 seat stadium, 16% of the entire city would have to be at that game. Even if you factor in the whole metro area, which is about 550,000 people, the stadium seats about 4% of the city's population. Expecting that high a level of interest and involvement doesn't seem reasonable. (Pittsburgh filling an 18,500-seater would only be 0.7% of the population.) The actual worst population-to-stadium ratio might be Villarreal, which has a 25,000-seat stadium in a ~225,000-person metro area. Like, we all know instinctively that Charleston and El Paso are way too small to have MLS teams, but when you start looking at just what "way too small" means in the context of filling a stadium, it really gets sobering.
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Jun 8, 2016 19:58
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TheNakedJimbo posted:I wonder which city in the world has the worst total population to stadium size ratio. Charleston only has ~120,000 people in it. In order to fill a 20,000 seat stadium, 16% of the entire city would have to be at that game. Even if you factor in the whole metro area, which is about 550,000 people, the stadium seats about 4% of the city's population. Expecting that high a level of interest and involvement doesn't seem reasonable. (Pittsburgh filling an 18,500-seater would only be 0.7% of the population.) well the reason they all suggest they could be in the MLS in the future is because they know there is no way to attract a stable fan base to a minor league team without suggesting the possibility that they could eventually be a major league team. and i'm sorry, but that's the strength of promotion/relegation. not that it should be ever be considered with the current state of our 2nd and 3rd divisions, but i don't see any other way to foster a stable lower league system, and in turn support the kind of grassroots player development necessary to actually turn MLS and us soccer into something relevant on an international stage.
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Jun 8, 2016 20:13
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TheNakedJimbo posted:I wonder which city in the world has the worst total population to stadium size ratio. Charleston only has ~120,000 people in it. In order to fill a 20,000 seat stadium, 16% of the entire city would have to be at that game. Even if you factor in the whole metro area, which is about 550,000 people, the stadium seats about 4% of the city's population. Expecting that high a level of interest and involvement doesn't seem reasonable. (Pittsburgh filling an 18,500-seater would only be 0.7% of the population.) I think Hoffenheim would be the worst. Stadium seats 30,000, and the town has a population of about 3,200. 
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Jun 9, 2016 00:13
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wicka posted:i just hate that we have a league system in which the league is a personality itself that bickers with other leagues. i don't care about MLS or NASL or USL, these are just containers for teams that organize things and set up media contracts, why are they fighting with each other and forming alliances? all of these leagues need to focus more on growing the sport and not just on growing themselves. more often than not those two things are not as intertwined as they think they are. We've been stuck in this silly situation since the beginning of soccer in the USA; even the AFA and the AAFA and other leagues and associations couldn't agree on anything and fought each other back in the late 1800s/early 1900s. And there was the soccer war between the USFA and ASL back in the 1920s. And so on. The USSF had a chance to actually take control of things between 1984-1996 and set up and run a single unified system, but instead we got MLS. I'm definitely a "Tampa Bay Rowdies till I die" kind of guy in that I'm mostly motivated by loyalty to my club; I don't really care about USL, NASL, or MLS as such. Pittsburgh at least has a valid case for being a major league city in USA sports, within our existing system of major/minor leagues, so their plans are not necessarily delusional or just a smoke screen to attract fan attention. If we did have pro/rel cities like El Paso and Charleston would have a chance to make it to the top flight but they'd actually have to earn it. Not likely, but fun when it actually does happen. Not going to happen in USA soccer in our lifetimes probably but it is still worth thinking of other ways of doing things. quote:For Rowdies fans, the Beard is a keeper quote:Rayo OKC's future in question following relegation of Spanish club
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Jun 9, 2016 01:44
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Do over Ham posted:If we did have pro/rel cities like El Paso and Charleston would have a chance to make it to the top flight but they'd actually have to earn it. Not likely, but fun when it actually does happen. Not going to happen in USA soccer in our lifetimes probably but it is still worth thinking of other ways of doing things. i'd love to hear other ways of doing things. no one has really suggested anything. i always get frustrated when pro/rel is raised and people dismiss it out of hand with "oh you just want to be like the europeans" or "americans will never accept that." first off, the poo poo the europeans do works, so yeah, maybe we should try some of it. and secondly, how do you know americans never would accept pro/rel? most of them have never experienced it. the fact that our leagues grew in a weird vacuum, playing sports few others cared about, really doesn't prove that doing things differently is an inherently bad option. and there are millions more americans watching those foreign leagues than MLS. regardless, don't think of pro/rel as a feature that you're selling to fans. think of it from a purely functional perspective. MLS wants to be a top league, wants to help the US become a top league, but they've never explained how they are going to grow that level of domestic talent. to me, the best way is to implement pro/rel, allow lower leagues to grow and stabilize, and allow teams in those leagues to build academies that can train youth players for free. if they have another idea, i'm all ears.
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Jun 9, 2016 02:14
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I would love to see pro/rel between divisions 2 and 3. It would introduce the concept to idiot Americans and would lend some gravitas to lower-division competitions. but I don't think MLS is ready for it and NASL and USL hate each other too much to let it happen.
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Jun 9, 2016 02:48
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Nostradingus posted:I would love to see pro/rel between divisions 2 and 3. It would introduce the concept to idiot Americans and would lend some gravitas to lower-division competitions. but I don't think MLS is ready for it and NASL and USL hate each other too much to let it happen. i think the best way to do it would be for MLS to stop at 24 teams or whatever, merge with NASL/USL, and then start investing in developing a second division. once the second division is stable in the way MLS is, start promoting/relegating teams. but you are never going to second a second division to that level unless you explicitly say "this WILL be a path to the top."
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Jun 9, 2016 02:52
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wicka posted:i think the best way to do it would be for MLS to stop at 24 teams or whatever, merge with NASL/USL, and then start investing in developing a second division. once the second division is stable in the way MLS is, start promoting/relegating teams. but you are never going to second a second division to that level unless you explicitly say "this WILL be a path to the top." Pro/rel doesn't even have to stop MLS from expanding. Relegate one team and promote two every year and presto 
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Jun 9, 2016 12:13
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TheNakedJimbo posted:Pro/rel doesn't even have to stop MLS from expanding. Relegate one team and promote two every year and presto The idea of relegation would scare the poo poo out of potential owners and moron American Chelsea fans. MLS is still a niche sport and I don't think it would be good to scare off what few fairweather fans there are
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Jun 9, 2016 21:31
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Nostradingus posted:The idea of relegation would scare the poo poo out of potential owners and moron American Chelsea fans. MLS is still a niche sport and I don't think it would be good to scare off what few fairweather fans there are well, no, i think it's ridiculous to suggest any fans would care. if anything it'd attract fans, but in all honesty, i don't think fans are going to care either way. it's more that i think it's a necessity in order to produce a successful top league. and the owners won't have the ability to worry if you tell them "sorry, MLS is closed, only the second division is accepting new teams." in that case pro/rel is a good thing, it tells them they there is a defined path to MLS as long as their team is successful.
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Jun 9, 2016 21:40
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USL sat down for an in-depth Q & A with FC Cincinnati club President Jeff Berdingquote:The icing on the cake has been we’ve become a hot thing to do, the sort of cool thing. So there are a lot of people who are like, ‘hey, it’s Saturday night.’ Maybe it’s a girls’ night out, maybe it’s a group of couples getting together thinking, ‘let’s go to the soccer match and then go to dinner together.’ Creating an ‘it’ thing on the social scene so quickly as far as something cool to do in a city as big as Cincinnati has been just tremendous, and I think some of the decisions we’ve made from a management standpoint have helped play into that. http://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/658340
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Jun 10, 2016 15:06
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fyallm posted:USL sat down for an in-depth Q & A with FC Cincinnati club President Jeff Berding This is exactly what the Tampa Bay Rowdies managed to do in the 1970s: quote:Mmm, love that détente Still crazy after all these years... quote:Mary and Dieter Karnstedt are Rowdies' royal couple Minnesota stadium situation chugging along... quote:Hearing shows community split on St. Paul pro soccer stadium More info leaks out about Overtown situation... quote:David Beckham rep said no way to sewage station next to soccer stadium Sounds like MBU's biggest problem is lack of a local big money real estate guy on their ownership team who could navigate this minefield of local politics. Tim Leiweke was brought in to head MBU's efforts, and I'm sure he is much better at this than Beckham or Claure, but he's not a local Miami guy. He can't pull this off from LA anymore than Beckham can. This is the problem with out-of-town or foreign, non-local investors, especially when building a new stadium is involved. Miami FC and Ft. Lauderdale Strikers have this problem, too, in that they are foreign owned, but at least they have actual teams playing locally and attracting local fans. Maybe they will find local investors and local political allies that way. MBU has no chance of doing that given the way MBU has been run as a glamour boy operation expecting to parachute into Miami and have everything run smoothly as though it were a celebrity fashion show or something of that nature. Impressive signing for Indy XI: quote:INDY ELEVEN SIGN MEXICAN LEGEND GERARDO TORRADO FOR FALL 2016
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Jun 11, 2016 07:49
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Indy Eleven just beat Carolina 4-1 to take the Spring Season title from New York*. *Assuming Fort Lauderdale doesn't win by seven goals tomorrow.
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Jun 12, 2016 02:39
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An unreal night at IUPUI. Undefeated in ten games, presumptive Spring Season champions, and on to Chicago Fire on Wednesday for USOC. Here's a bunch of tweet vids I'm in. https://twitter.com/prpodcastshow/status/741820948073054208 https://twitter.com/LadyVictory11/status/741808607717695489 This one is good cause there's a Gerardo Torrado cameo at the end: https://twitter.com/ScottStewartXI/status/741813239969808384
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Jun 12, 2016 04:10
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Crazy Ted posted:Indy Eleven just beat Carolina 4-1 to take the Spring Season title from New York*. Rowdies tie Jacksonville in Jacksonville, 1-1. Congrats to Indy (barring a Strikers fluke win).
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Jun 12, 2016 05:49
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Do over Ham posted:Rowdies tie Jacksonville in Jacksonville, 1-1. At least it's not the Cosmos.
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Jun 12, 2016 15:37
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Indy Eleven may have won the spring season championship, but fell to 2nd place in the all important attendance table:http://soccerstadiumdigest.com/2016-nasl-attendance/ posted:
we lost by 3
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Jun 13, 2016 21:47
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King of False Promises posted:At least it's not the Cosmos. Yeah, that too!  awyeahz posted:Indy Eleven may have won the spring season championship, but fell to 2nd place in the all important attendance table: Patience Tampa Bay Rowdies...climb the ladder....(and get Al Lang expanded)....
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Jun 14, 2016 01:38
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Do over Ham posted:Patience Tampa Bay Rowdies...climb the ladder....(and get Al Lang expanded).... Poor Ft. Lauderdale 
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Jun 14, 2016 02:42
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King of False Promises posted:Poor Ft. Lauderdale Yeah I know! Such a great soccer heritage going down the drain. I really do hope they manage to turn it around. And they are even worse than Miami so far, which is the exact opposite of the historical precedence in pro soccer attendance (Miami vs. Ft. Lauderdale pro soccer attendance that is). Ft. Lauderdale usually does a lot better than Miami. Surprised at the Cosmos, too. Wish the authorities would stop dragging their feet and give them a yes or no on their stadium plans.
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Jun 14, 2016 03:10
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Do over Ham posted:Yeah I know! Such a great soccer heritage going down the drain. I really do hope they manage to turn it around.
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Jun 14, 2016 06:15
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total attendance figures for the top three leagues + NWSL, through 6/6: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=8105 cincy and the god drat portland thorns are outdrawing five MLS clubs (columbus, DC, colorado, chicago, dallas)
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Jun 19, 2016 18:57
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wicka posted:total attendance figures for the top three leagues + NWSL, through 6/6: http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=8105 The craziest part is most of the cincy matches the weather has been pretty crappy. Yesterday was the first really nice day and attendance was great!
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Jun 19, 2016 22:02
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The plot thickens...quote:David Beckham in stadium talks with partner behind All Aboard Florida Meanwhile no word about the Cosmos stadium.... quote:Cosmos face little or no options for a medium-sized Open Cup venue in the metropolitan area Neighborhood around Al Lang just got a bit tonier... quote:Philanthropists Tom and Mary James unveil plans for new St. Petersburg museum Boise... quote:Pro soccer in Boise: ‘We have all the right people in our corner already’
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Jun 21, 2016 05:35
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So Perry bounces back after leaving the Rowdies:quote:USL Names Van Der Beck VP of Competition & Operations I'm getting old; never heard of this guy: quote:INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED RECORDING ARTIST FLO RIDA TO PERFORM POST-MATCH CONCERT ON JULY 2 PRESENTED BY HOT 101.5 Do over Ham fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jun 25, 2016 |
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Jun 24, 2016 01:30
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quote:NASL football sets US expansion goals quote:USL Formally Welcomes Nashville to League
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Jul 2, 2016 02:30
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i like a lot of what the NASL owners are saying, though i wish they wouldn't have used the word "today" wrt to pro/rel, that gives MLS an easy thing to latch onto. it's most certainly not for today.
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Jul 2, 2016 03:47
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FC Cincinnati vs. Crystal Palace have sold out their match tonight... all 35,061 tickets sold.. Nippert Stadium is going to be rocking!
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Jul 16, 2016 14:56
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Ft. Lauderdale Strikers are leaving Lockhart Stadium for the cricket stadium: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/soccer/fort-lauderdale-strikers/fl-fort-lauderdale-strikers-to-leave-lockhart-0715-20160714-story.html Another echo from the original Rowdies in the news: quote:https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...ell-in-america/
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Jul 16, 2016 17:39
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